It's only been one game, but... I suppose if you hold them to .405 shooting and you shoot .415, you should win. Not that much fun to watch, though. Cousins and Evans (I pushed for a Deng for Evans kind of deal this summer, FWIW) were really good for Sacto. I wonder if Thibs plays Noah 40 minutes every night, how long will it be before we have another PaxCoach altercation in the locker room? Though Noah was brilliant. Is he the guy we want to rely on to be the star of every game, expecting to be led to playoffs? It's possible, but doesn't seem like the strongest plan. Is it me, or should Deng have had the surgery he needed right away when we lost in the playoffs last season? Nazr. Omer who? Rip looked good, actually. I'd like to see him be more efficient than 19 points on 16 shots (like how about on 14 shots!). Seems like he got burned on D, though, and he's been a pretty good defender all his career. Boozer. Amnesty time. /sarcasm Taj. I've been asked why I say he's an elite sub but not a great starter. I'll take 5 rebounds, 4 blocks, and 4 points from my sub. It's actually pretty elite. From my starter? See Boozer. Taj and Booz were playing against the same big men on Sacto. Kirk actually did look like the younger Kirk. He just took fewer shots and has a better balanced lineup. 1-7, 3 points. Butler actually took a shot! He made it, too. OK, now I get why Deng can't afford to have surgery. Nate Robinson and Belinelli are decent bench players. Nate might be the best guard on the team.
After much of the 2nd game (it's a blow out). Cleveland is really bad, but... When 4 of 5 of our starters have a good game, we look pretty good. I don't expect us to shoot .676 from the field in many games. I also like how we're getting Boozer involved early and often in both games. As I write this, he has as many assists and steals as Kirk. ;-) Deng is having a solid game. Let's hope the first game was the anomaly. Taj being the elite sub again! I wasn't kidding in my previous post when I wrote Nate might be the best guard on the team. He's proving it again in game 2. I don't mean including Rose, of course.
To answer points from both of your posts..... Winning ugly is probably going to be our MO on most nights. 4 nights out of 5 the most talented player will be on the other team. As a general rule I think our wins will come when at least 4 out of our top 6 players (starting 5 plus Taj) play to their abilities with at least one guy having a plus game. It'll be hero by committee. After the first night my biggest concern was Noah's minutes. One data point is not sufficient to draw conclusions, but we know Thibs can lean on his players pretty heavily, and I'm not sure Noah can handle being played like he was last night. We also can't afford to lose him for extended periods of playing time. He didn't play many minutes last night, but none of the starters did. He did play the whole first quarter though...... Overall I'm optimistic about this team after the last two games. I have the utmost confidence in Thibs' ability to outscheme the opposition and the team looks like it's bought in completely and is ready to execute. If you showed a video of the Kirk from this season next to the Kirk from 2007 I'm not sure I'd be able to tell a difference between the two. Everyone looks poised to do what they do, and the team seems particularly well suited to taking advantage of Boozer's talents compared to year's past.
